Love Smells Like Gunpowder and Frost
by Valkyrei
Summary: Raven - formerly Winter - is out for revenge, but when she meets the flock, her plans change. Just as she begins to discover her true feelings for a certain someone, the unthinkable happens. Will she ever learn to trust again, or has Winter finally died?
1. Chapter 1

I slammed his head into the wall hard enough to dent it  the wall, not his head. Not that there was anything in there to damage, anyways ¾ and let him slide to the floor. He scrambled away, babbling desperately.

"Please, please, I promise I'll change; I'll give to charity, I'll feed the poor, I'll become a goddamn drag queen if you'll just let me live!" his voice shook as he tried to put the desk between us.

I leant over the desk and grabbed him by his pudgy neck, the shadows on the walls writhing with the heat of my anger. "Listen to me, and listen well, because I promise you, this will be the last thing you ever hear." His eyes bulged, and his face took on a purplish shade. I dug in my fingernails. "You took something from me, something I can never reclaim. You took away my family, and I am going to make each and every one of you pay. By the time I am through, you will curse the day you had been born, and you will wish for death."

Blood welled from the crescent moon slits in his neck as I shoved him into a chair and taped his wrists and ankles. Closing my eyes, I placed my palms on his temples, feeling his hammering heartbeat.

We were standing on top of a tall cliff, with the wind whipping savagely around us. Or him, really. He wasn't aware of me. Sand was all I could see, it was a barren wasteland. Then there were specks on the horizon. They seem to be moving, but they are still too far away for me to be sure.

He waited in fearful silence, stunned into speechlessness. Closer they came, and I began to see forms, of different sizes. Still closer they came, and they were near enough that I could see what those forms were.

Babies, little children, all horribly deformed. Hordes of them, almost like bees from a distant hive. They surrounded the CEO, and I watched in grim silence as his worst fears unfolded around him.

A little girl approached him, shambling awkwardly on cats' paws attached to human ankles. She held out a hand, mottled and oozing with infection. Her body was covered with puncture marks and burns. "Mister," she said, "Why did you do these terrible things to me?" And I realized that these were all of his experiments.

A boy came up, his skin covered in scales, a sickly green color. Others as well. Suddenly the crowd parted and I saw the most devastating image of all: a tiny body, its arms and legs missing, somehow rolling towards him, crying, stopping at his feet. His head was turned towards him, the eyes pleading, the skin wrinkled and blotched and smelling of saline solution. The poor baby had been pulled apart, limb by limb, to test infants levels of pain tolerance.

The CEO tried to run, as fast as he could, but abruptly he fell and lost consciousness. I felt what he felt, and something was tearing at him. There was intense pain. Then more pain. He tried to scream out, but there was no response. No one cared. He tried desperately to fight against the pull, but then he realized that he had no arms or legs.

The next instant he was at someone's feet, looking up. Pleading. He had become that baby, that experiment. He was looking up at himself.

I came out of the Fear before he did, thinking. His Fear was confrontation, that he would someday have to face up to all that he had done. Anger coiled like a cobra in my belly. That day was today.

He was sobbing and begging. He already wanted me to kill him and get it over with. I showed him a few more Fears ¾ being buried alive, falling, snakes and spiders, etc ¾ before I obliged him, slashing my bowie knife across his neck in a jagged, pulsing red line.

I took the necklace from around my neck, wrapping the chain around my hand, and slit his wrists with my knife, letting the blood spill over the cross and pressing it to his cheek. Then I made the roman numeral for three on his forehead in black lipstick.

"Three down, fourteen to go," I announced to the blood spattered walls.

When I was with the Covey, they had called me Winter, because I reminded Blade of the season, everything harsh, but beautiful, strangely fragile. He said it was because of the way I looked, all angles, almost transparent. Now, as I dipped my fingers into the warm, thick blood, I wrote my new name on the white walls.

"Raven."

I bounced, kicking out the window and spreading my wings, reveling the feeling of the wind through my feathers. Even though I hated them more than Hitler, I was glad that the scientists had made me so much different from the others, but I hated them because they hadn't my Covey special, too. If they had, they would still be alive.

I rubbed my chest where my heart ached. Their faces flashed in front of my eyes in rapid motion. Blade, Trinity, Rosemary, Cipher, and Kieran. I missed them so much.

Blade had combat sense; he knew what moves someone was going to make before they made them, and knew if a situation was deadly, and to who. I loved him more than almost anyone. He was so like me, with his dark clothes and nature and dry humor.

Trinity was my best friend. She talked a lot, sure, but she was an amazing fighter and could borrow anyone's power. It didn't even have to be supernatural. If you were super strong, she could borrow that strength. Same with smarts.

Rosemary was my little baby. She could control the wind, and having someone like that around certainly made flying easier. She could call up and updraft and we would be able to coast for miles. She had light brown curls and big blue doe eyes.

Cipher could hack anything mechanical. If it had wheels, he could jack it. If it was made of metal, he could control it with his tecnopathy. He was the computer geek of the group, and probably the smartest. Never mind that he couldn't speak except in true bird calls. It was very educational to have him around. It was no wonder he hung around Rosie all the time, because she could speak with animals, too.

Kieran was the goofball of our little family, and he liked nothing better than to generate a force field right in front of you and watch you squish like a bug on a windshield. Of course, he never did it to us while we were flying, because I had promised him that if he ever did I would make him fly everywhere in his underwear for the next year.

I was the leader, sort of. It was just because I was the coldest, the one most able to make the best decision in the shortest amount of time, because that was how they designed me. They made me immune to toxins, sedatives, and radiation. I was umbrakinetic ¾ I could manipulate shadows ¾ and could mimic some animal structures, like eyes and claws and teeth, mostly the weapons. I had a touch of precognition, but I couldn't control it. It came and went on a whim. My communication with the dead was just as touch-and-go. One thing that was absolutely in my power, however, was my ability to show someone their worst fears.

When my Covey was slaughtered, their powers had somehow transferred to me. I barely even felt human anymore. Well, I wasn't technically human in the first place, but I felt more, _wild_, somehow, holding on to my sanity by the skin of my teeth.

I wiped the tears from my eyes roughly with the sleeve of my jacket. Maybe, maybe if they had just made Blade the leader… maybe they would all still be alive, maybe ¾ no. it didn't matter anymore, anyway. They were dead, and soon, just as soon as I could finish my mission, I would be too.


	2. Chapter 2

I was flying over California, I think it was, when a loud scream caught my attention. I would have ignored it ¾ every bird-girl for herself ¾ but Hunter ¾ my falcon/raven familiar ¾ swooped back and tugged on a strand of my hair, pulling me in that direction.

Banking sharply, I swerved, soaring in the direction of the scream. If Hunter thought it was important, it most likely was.

There were six large birds flying west. I squinted, shaping my eyes to that of an eagles, then pulled back sharply, almost forgetting to flap.

They were other bird kids. An entire flock of them! I looked in the direction that they were flying from and saw a low, squat white building, shimmering in the heat. The School. Hmmm… escapees.

I followed lazily after Hunter, my pace not reflecting the pounding of my heart. I knew this area, and it seemed that they were heading towards a cave near Lake Mead about seventy miles southeast.

By the time I got to the cave it was nearly dark. I sensed the strength of the powers in the cave. Mimicry… telepathy… empathy… psychometric… sonic scream… wall-crawling… super speed… water breathing…

But most were still dormant or underdeveloped. The telepath seemed to be fairly powerful, and I debated whether or not to I let my shield slip just enough to let her know I was coming. I decided against it. I didn't know if they were safe or not, so I would wait.

The murmur of voices alerted me to their presence in a cave by a flock of ferruginous hawks nesting grounds. Hunter brushed my cheek with his wingtip before gliding down to converse with his distant cousins-of-sorts.

I perched lightly on the lip of the cave mouth. "Hey-"

I was cut off by someone launching themselves at me. Moving fast from years of practice, I twisted to the side, crouching to the floor and sticking my foot out to trip the boy, touching his arm lightly to show him his Fear as he hurtled by. He had olive skin, shaggy black hair, and black wings.

Someone else moved in to attack me, and Hunter came screeching into the mêlée, leading his new hawk friends. They merely fluttered in the faces of the other kids, screeching loudly and flapping wildly.

I drew the shadows to me, forming a thick wall of pure darkness between us. "Stop!" I shouted at them. "I'm not trying to attack you!"

A small blonde girl with snowy white wings, blonde ringlets, and big blue eyes tugged at a girls arm. She had a bruise on one cheek, but it was fading to an ugly yellowish-brown. The older girl had brown eyes and light hair with sun streaks. Her wings were brown with sprinklings of off-white feathers and tan stripes. I noted sourly that both of them were beautiful, or, at least the little one would be, when she grew up. If she grew up.

"She's telling the truth, Max," the little girl said earnestly.

'Max' looked at her. "Are you sure, Angel?"

The little girl, Angel, frowned. Realizing she was the telepath, I let my guard slip. Just a little bit, though. There were things that I didn't want anyone to see. Ever. Her frown vanished and she smiled widely. "Positive. Her name is Raven."

I let the shadows dissipate slowly, acting with the caution of someone facing a much larger group of people. Another blonde kid ¾ a boy of about ten or eleven ¾ scrambled by, yelling, "Call off the hawks! Call them off!"

"Oh, sorry," I said. I made a chattering sound to Hunter, who in turn relayed it to his new pals. They settled down, swooping out to their nests. One of them stayed, perching on the arm of a tall, pale boy with strawberry blonde hair and milky blue eyes. The hawk preened, running it's beak through the boy's hair. I put a hand over my mouth to hide a smile.

Max stepped forward. "I'm Max. This is ¾ Where's Fang?"

As she spoke, the dark boy hauled himself over the lip of the cave, groaning. I remembered that I had zapped him with his Fear just before knocking him out of the cave. Crap. Max rushed to his side.

"Fang, Fang, what's wrong? What happened?" she cried, her voice panicked.

"Crap," I muttered to myself. I had seen a flash of a cage, and if his worse Fear was being in a cage he wouldn't have been able to fly and would have splattered on the ground. I rushed over. "Get out of the way," I ordered. Max opened her mouth to snap at me, but I didn't give her a chance. "I did it, sort of, and unless any of you can heal, you aren't going to be much help."

I didn't wait to see what she thought, but gently placed my hand on his chest, feeling his pulse and his breathing. My heartbeat and respirations slowed to match his, and I felt that, even with his bird-kid healing, it would take him months to heal, and he would still fly a bit weird.

Unless I did something about it.

I hated doing this. It absolutely sucked. I would give him some of my life-force, part of my Grace, as I called it, to make him whole again. It hurt like hell, and I always felt empty after it.

But it was my fault, and Blade had always told me to pay your debts before they had a chance to pile up. I took another deep, pain-free breath, and let my energy flow into his body.

At first, it seemed like nothing was happening, but I hung on fiercely, refusing to end it even though it felt like I was being stabbed by white-hot needles. But at last I saw movement. Tiny bone spurs began to grow across the breaks, slowly at first, then quicker. Marrow formed, building itself in the protection of the bone. Bruises began to vanish. I didn't allow myself to even consider quitting until marrow, bone, nerves, veins, and muscles were healthy.

When I opened my eyes it was dark, and I was lying on top of someone's purple backpack. There was a whisper of cloth as I sat up, and the conversation at the front of the cave ceased abruptly. The bone spikes on the tops of my wings scraped the stone of the walls, and I ached fiercely. The emptiness wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be, and as for the aches, they would be gone in an hour or two.

A fire crackled, and I scooted closer to its warmth. The desert was chilly at night. A girl with tawny wings and mocha-colored skin sat next to me, nearly bouncing with contained energy. Her hair bounced with her, wild caramel colored curls around her face.

"Hi. I'm Nudge. You're Raven, right? Like the bird, huh? What's your birds' name? He didn't let anyone but Ig ¾ that's Iggy. He's the tall one with reddish-blonde hair. He's blind, but don't act like he's any different from the rest of us. He hates that ¾ come near you. I guess it's because he can like, speak to birds now, you know? What's your favorite color? I like all of them. Why are your wings different, like all covered in spikes, you know? Your like, a shadow manipulator, right? And a healer? What other powers do you have? You look a lot like Fang, don'tcha think? Exactly the same, except you're pale. Well, and sort of… I don't know ghost-looking, all translucent."

She paused, taking a breath to continue, but I jumped in before I forgot the questions she had already asked me. "He's not my bird. He stays with me because he wants to, and his name is Hunter. My favorite colors are red and black. My wings are like this because they used a type of bird DNA from something that doesn't exist anymore, and mixed it with raven DNA. I can show people their worst fears, and I can take on certain animal traits, control the weather, sort of see the future, and talk to the dead."

"Wow, you're like, really powerful," Nudge said, her eyes wide on my face. "Do you have ¾ "

"Nudge!" Max called. "Come over here. We need to vote."

Nudge looked annoyed at being interrupted, and rolled her eyes, but looked back at me and said, "We're all voting to see if you can stay. I want you to stay, and so does ¾"

"Nudge! Now!"

"Coming," she called back. "I'll be right back," she said, and scurried away.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride or the plot of Maximum Ride. Those belong to James Patterson. I only own Raven, my OC.

* * *

_They're taking our dreams_

_And they tear them apart'_

_til everyone's the same_

_I've got no place to go_

_I've got no where to run_

_They love to watch me fall_

_They think they know it all_

_~ Me Against the World, Simple Plan_

I sat motionless in front of the fire, the flames dancing in my eyes. Did I really want to take on a new family so soon? It would be nice to have some human company. I suppose, if they do want me to stay, than I would. Nudge seemed nice, and she reminded me of Trinity. In fact, everyone in this group reminded me of someone in my old flock. It was kind of weird, but nice to have something familiar. I stretched my wings as far as the walls of the cave allowed, letting my feathers soak in the heat. I was still tired, and I had used too much of my power.

I hadn't realized how much I had missed having other people around until I could hear Nudge and the others talking. The rise and fall of their conversation was comforting.

"You can stay!" Nudge yelled in my ear.

My eyes flew open to meet her deep brown ones. "Thanks, I guess," I said, trying not to let the joy I felt in my heart show too brightly on my face. "So, where are we going?" I asked. We were standing outside the cave, letting the rain wash away all the dust and dirt. Okay, so I might have helped the storm along a bit, but who could blame me? I couldn't remember the last time I had a shower.

Max closed her eyes, breathing in the chilly rain-air. "East," she answered with conviction. "We'll go east."

The next morning the sky was so blue and hard it looked like you could light a match on it. Gazzy - AKA, the Gasman - was soaring next to me, eagerly questioning me about my explosive history with Erasers, as they called the Wolfmen, and asking all sorts of questions about fuses and bombs.

I answered all of them in detail, Iggy gliding on my other wing, listening intently. So I was a bit of a pyro. It had gotten me out of a lot of nasty scraps in the past.

I did I quick three-sixty scan. Nudge was flying next to Max, talking about her old room, when pain lanced through my skull. _Max_. One of my spotty visions blossomed behind my closed eyes, and I saw her falling, holding her head.

"Fang!" I called, cutting off Gazzy's explanation about the differences of C4 and black powder. "Get Max."

He didn't fully trust me, for which I didn't blame him, but he did as I asked. I flapped twice to catch up with her, looking her in the eyes. Fang and Iggy were hovering nearby, ready to catch her.

"Max," I said urgently, holding her eyes with mine, trying to give her all the instructions she needed before it happened. "You are about to go through the most painful thing you have ever experienced. It's going to hurt like hell, but just go with it. It'll last about half an hour. You'll -"

She choked suddenly, and her wings folded like paper and she started to drop like a hailstone. Fang caught her before she dropped more than twenty feet, grunting at the combined weight. Max moaned.

"Man, you way a freaking ton," he told her, trying to cover his worry. To me, his stress was clear. "What have you been eating, rocks?"

"Why, is your head missing some?" the corner of his mouth quirked.

"I'll find someplace to land," I said, speeding up with Hunter. After a few miles we found a small clearing, and Iggy started lighting a fire.

I crouched next to him as he lit a match. "You know, you are a pyrokinetic. You can control fire with your mind."

He snorted. "If I could, why would I be using a match?"

I sighed. Denial. Most people, even winged people, refused to believe they had powers. "Because it hasn't been needed. It's still dormant. If you embrace it, if you accept it -"

"Yo, watch it!" Max yelled. "Clear more of that brush away. We don't want to burn down the whole forest."

Twenty minutes later I was roasting a marshmallow over the fire.

"It's about to burn," Iggy said, just before it began to smolder.

"How do you do that?" I asked, yanking my stick out of the fire and blowing on the fluffy sugar-puff to put out the flame.

He shrugged. "It starts to smell funny right before it burns. Burning sugar. It's not that complicated."

"I think it's amazing," I said sincerely. Pink painted his pale cheeks.

I had Hunter take first watch, but just before I fell asleep Angel crawled into Max's lap. "I've got a secret." she said. "From when I was at the School. It's about us. Where we came from?"

"What do you mean, sweetie?" Max asked.

"I heard stuff," she whispered.

"Angel," Max said soothingly, trying to hide the panic in her eyes. "Was it stuff people said or stuff people thought?"

"Well, it was stuff people thought, but I heard someone think that some other place had information about us. Like where we came from."

"Well spill it!" Iggy demanded. He must have been awake this whole time. He sat up next to me. Now everyone began to wake up.

"In a place in New York," Angel said. "Like, the Institute, or something."

"The Institute?" Max asked. "In New York City or upstate New York?"

"I don't know," Angel said. "It was the Living Institute, I think."

I didn't know what the big fuss was over their parents. I had never cared if I was a test-tube baby or not, but that was probably because my priorities were different than theirs. Iggy freaked out when he found out that she hadn't said anything but could quite possibly know who their parents were.

Angel started to cry, then said that they had gotten the bird genes into them with amniocentesis.

"I heard that they told Nudge's parents that she died, but she didn't."

Nudge gulped, her big brown eyes full of tears. I put an arm around her on impulse. "I _did_ have a mom and dad," she whispered in to my shoulder. "I _did_!"

"And Iggy's mom -"

Iggy tensed, his whole body focusing on Angel's small voice.

"Died." Angel took a shuddering breath. "She died when he was born."

The look of stunned grief on Iggy's face was painful. I didn't know what to do, what to say. I just didn't want him to hurt like that. I touched his arm gently, rubbing his shoulder. "I am sorry," I muttered.

Then she told us the awful news that her and Gazzy's parents had _given_ them to the school, for money. He leaned into Max's shoulder and sobbed.

My chest tightened. I remembered how Kieran used to do the same thing, and how Rosie would come to me to chase away the bad dreams. Tears welled up in my eyes, and I bit my lip. I didn't want to hear anymore.

"Excuse me," I stammered, jumping to my feet and dashing into the darkened forest.

I stumbled about a mile and a half away, far enough that they couldn't hear me, and burst into tears. I leaned against a tree, then slid to the ground. My family had meant everything to me, and then the one time I wasn't there, the one time I had given in to my feelings, they had been killed. The Wolfmen - Erasers - had toyed with them, then killed them one by one, starting with the youngest and working their way up.

I don't know how long I cried for, but eventually my sobs slowed and I became aware that I wasn't alone. I looked up and saw Fang standing above me, regarding me with a mixture of suspicion and curiosity.

"What's your problem?" he asked. It was still a shock to see him. It was like looking in the mirror, sort of, except that my skin was transparent white and my features were more… feminine than his.

"You love your family, don't you? More than anything?" he nodded suspiciously. "Then what would you do if they were killed, all of them, one by one? You would hunt down the ones who did it, wouldn't you? And make them pay."

His face darkened.

"I wasn't always a freelance. I used to have a family, too. My Covey. It was a lot like yours. They were my world, and I promised myself that I would hunt down their killers and make them beg for death. By the time I'm through with them, they do. What you saw was just a taste of what I can do. I can make your worst fears come to life, make you live out every scenario where you are utterly powerless to help those you love."

I rolled up my sleeve. There was a heart, dripping in blood, surrounded by barbed wire tattooed into the skin of my shoulder, with three shiny white scars in the middle. I traced them with my finger.

"One for every life I take for them."

I couldn't read his face, and his eyes were emotionless. But then he stuck out his hand and hauled me to my feet.

"Keep in mind, Raven," he said, staring at me intently. "If you turn out to be one of them, I will be the first to take you out. _They_ are _my_ family, and I _will_ die for them."

I didn't look away, just gazed at him levelly. "I wouldn't expect anything different."

He looked away, and Iggy stepped into the clearing. "Oh, good, you found her. Max is getting ready to leave. She made popcorn for breakfast," he said condescendingly, rolling his eyes.

"Great," I said, walking back the way I came. Sure enough, it was light out. I had spent the whole night crying, but I felt better than I had in months. I had failed my family, but I would do everything I could to take care of this new one.

The rest of the Flock was just taking off when the three of us made it back to the camp. Max nodded to us, then ran and jumped into the air. She was about ten feet into the air when she cried out, falling, and smacked into the ground with a sickening thud.

Fang was at her side in an instant. _He loves her_, I thought, watching him hold her hair back as she heaved her Wheaties into the bushes. We stood over her worriedly as she stared at the sky.

"Do you need a doctor?" Fang asked.

"Oh, yeah, that's a good idea. Let's get more people in authority involved in this," she said weakly.

"Um, I don't know if I can do anything about it, but if you've forgotten, I am a healer," I said mildly.

Six pairs of eyes turned to stare at me. "Really?" Nudge asked eagerly.

I nodded. "Of course. Fang didn't miraculously heal himself. That was partly me." I plopped onto the grass, folding my legs. My hands hovered over Max's supine form, glowing a dim black. I went from ankles to neck, but when I reached her head I jerked my hands back, a shocked little yelp escaping my lips.

My hands stung, and shook them wildly, trying to regain the feeling in my fingers. "Oh, hell, Max, no wonder you puked. Fu- frick that hurts!" I looked to the rest of the flock. "I don't know what this is, but I can tell you definitively that it is not a medical condition, and that it isn't fatal." I shrugged. "She might just be getting a new ability, I don't know. But she isn't going to die."

I stood and brushed dirt off my pants, swaying a little.

Max rose, too, and said, "Let's just get to New York."

"After you," Fang said through gritted teeth, jerking his thumb towards the sky. The rest of the flock, too busy watching Max, didn't notice how he crouched slightly, preparing himself to catch her if she were to fall again.

She got to her feet shakily and flung herself into the sky. I was glad that I didn't have to run to take off, and flapped my wings lazily to get aloft. My wings kick butt. They're red and black, sooty, but translucent, like your looking through frosted glass, and the feathers are almost like ostrich feathers. They have bone spikes on the tops, and are about fifteen and a half feet long. They match my hair, which I think is awesome. Not the bones, just the way my hair fades from ebony black at the top to a dark, midnight red at the bottom. You can only really see it when I'm in the light. I always have a silver streak towards the front, though, to remind myself of Blade's silver wings.

Hunter screeched indignantly, upset that I ran off like that, and ran his beak through my hair.

Fang, his wings tinted purple in the sunlight, glided silently beside me. "Are you sure?" he demanded quietly. I was struck again by his concern for her. He really loved her.

I nodded. "Positive. Whatever this is, it won't kill her."

"What do you mean by ability?"

"All of you have dormant powers. You, for instance, will have combat sense, a sort of invisibility, and gills. Max has empathy, super speed, water breathing, and a mild form of premonitions. When I came online, I went through a similar process. The more unnatural your ability is, the more it hurts. Angel was born with telepathy, which means that it's more powerful than it would be if she mutated and got it on her own."

He nodded and beat his wings twice to get to the front, flying next to Max and Nudge. Iggy took his place.

"Are you alright?" he asked. He must be referring to my sob-fest.

"Yeah. Just some bad memories," I answered, looking away. Then, changing the subject before he could ask me anymore questions, I asked, "What was the biggest explosion you've ever made?"

"Oh, my God," I breathed, staring at the lights of the city below us. I hate the city. I get all tense and twitchy and there's so much smog in the air it weighs down my wings and makes it hard to breath. Streaming pearls of headlights wound through the arteries of the city, and it looked like every building in the city had it's lights on.

Iggy was frowning. "That's a _lot_ of people."

"Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh!" Nudge squealed. "I want to go down there! I want to walk on Fifth Avenue! I want to go to the museums!" she looked at Max, her face alight with anticipation. "Do we have any money left? Can we get something to eat? Can we, like, go shopping?"

Iggy cocked his head to one side. "What's that sound? It sounds like music. It is music. How can we hear it, way up here?"

"It's a concert," I said, shaping my ears to that of bats, and my eyes to hawks. "An outdoor concert. In the park."

"Oh, cool!" Nudge said. "Can we go? Please, please, Max? A real concert!" I didn't know if it was possible for a kid to bounce up and down while flying, but if it was, she was doing it.

"Sure," Max said reluctantly, "But try to come down behind the floodlight, so that no one sees us."

We landed in a huge oak behind the stage and shook out our legs, folding our wings once they had cooled off enough. The flock covered them with their windbreakers, and I pulled on my black jean jacket. Hunter perched on my shoulder and nudged my cheek.

"I know," I whispered to him. Neither of us liked this. "But look how excited the kids are. Who knows if they would ever get this chance again?" he bobbed his head and tapped his foot on my shoulder. I ruffled his feathers. "Thank you."

We stayed near the edge of the crowd, avoiding the worst of the crush affect of the crowd. I kept hold of Nudge's and Iggy's hands. Gasman was on his shoulders, and was holding his lighter, swaying to the music of the Taylor Twins. Ick. Too poppy for me. We couldn't drop in on like, a _Disturbed_ concert, or something?

As soon as the concert ended we melted into the trees, nesting in a large willow tree for the night.

"That was so awesome," Nudge said happily. "I can't believe how many people there are, all crowded into one place. I mean, listen. There's absolutely no silence, ever. I can hear people and traffic and sirens and dogs barking. I mean, it was always too quiet back at home."

"Well I hate it," Iggy and I said in unison. We looked at each other, which was a little weird, considering, before he went on. "When it's quiet I can tell where the heck things are, people are. The echoes bounce off and make a picture. Here I'm surrounded by a thick, smothering wall of sound. I want to get out of here."

I reached down from my perch and patted his shoulder. "Don't worry. Hunter and I hate it too."

"Oh, guys, no!" Nudge said indignantly. "This place is the bomb! You'll get used to it."

"We're here to find the institute," Max said firmly, practical as ever, laying down the law. "Maybe you two - three," she added after Hunter squawked loudly. "Will get used to it, maybe you won't. And Nudge, we aren't on vacation."

"How are we going to find the Institute?" Angel asked.

"I have a plan," Max said.

Hunter agreed to keep watch if I would carry him around tomorrow so he could sleep, and I climbed a few branches higher, finding a convenient fork and wedging myself in, staring out at all the lights. New York is like the worlds biggest non-traveling circus, I decided, and I'm smack dab in the center ring of the freak tent.


	4. Chapter 4

In the morning, Iggy found us a guy who sold honey roasted peanuts. I swung my bag off my shoulder, digging to the bottom, and found the thick rolls of twenty's, fifties, and hundreds I had swiped from the CEO's office. I held up my hand when Max tried to give us some peanut-money.

"I got this, trust me." she was about to protest, but I held up my hand. "It's from the school."

A sadistic, evil, 100% Max grin slithered across her face. "Well, in that case…"

I bought eight bags of peanuts, one for Hunter, of course, and popped a few into my mouth while we watched the people from a park bench.

Angel, Fang, Gazzy, and Nudge were watching a mime on the corner when I saw a sleek, dark-haired man walking down the street. His gaze slid over to meet that of the poodle-walkers, and that was all it took for me to go from relaxed to uber-stressed in a heartbeat.

"Iggy," I whispered. "Get the others."

We got up casually and walked over to the others with our peanuts. "Two o'clock," I murmured. We sped down the path, not bothering for subtleness as six more joined the group.

Hunter, who was currently cradled in my free arm, warbled quietly.

"The zoo!" I said urgently. "It's fieldtrip day!" We merged smoothly with the other school kids, us older kids ducking down to hide our height.

One of the creeps tried to push past the policeman at the front gate and was roughly shoved back. "School day only," he said. "No unauthorized adults. Oh, you're a chaperone, huh? Yeah? Show me your pass."

I repressed the urge to cheer for the boys in blue. Sadly – or not, depending on how you look at it – that was the first time I had ever appreciated anything a cop had done for me.

Once we made it past the sleepy ticket-taker, we swerved off to the left, slapping high fives.

Nudge was almost quivering with excitement. I was quivering with nerves. This place was giving me the creeps. There were cages everywhere, and the poor animals were bored to death.

"Come on, let's get farther in," Iggy said nervously. "Put some distance between us and them. Jeez, was that a lion? Please tell me it's behind bars."

I finished stashing Hunter under my jacket. I didn't want some pompous zoo-official to think he was one of theirs and put him in a cage. I took Iggy's arm, brushing the back of his hand lightly with my fingertips. "It's a zoo, Iggy. Everything is behind bars. Just like we used to be."

After about forty-five minutes I was twitching so badly it must have looked like I had palsy. Max must have been feeling the same way, because she started to look kind of green around the gills and began to round everyone up.

"Can we leave?" she pleaded. "I just – want to get out of here."

"You look kind of sick," I said. This time, there were no helpful visions of brain-attacks or convenient hiding places. Hunter stirred restlessly. At least he got to get some sleep.

Fang found a crevasse between two rocks, leading to the zoo keepers' lounge. We made like a banana and split.

"You know what I love about NY?" Gazzy said, inhaling a kosher hotdog. "It's full of New Yorkers who are even freakier than we are."

I pushed my sucker to the other side of my cheek so I could slurp my slushy.

"So we blend?" Iggy asked, licking an ice cream cone that was like a mini him: tall, thin, and vanilla. He was just over six feet – pretty good for fourteen, I thought – with strawberry blonde hair and pale skin. He was right: here on this broad avenue, surrounded by punk rockers, Goths, leatherites, gorgeous super models, suits, and students, seven kids in ratty clothes with questionable hygiene didn't really make an impact. Even having Hunter on my shoulder didn't really make a scene.

"Well, yeah. I mean, at least more than we usually do," I answered, finally getting to the bubblegum center of my lollipop.

Max and Fang were discussing the new Erasers – it was harder to spot them, they looked more like average, everyday humans, and there were females –Nudge was getting a burrito with Gazzy, and Max was explaining sauerkraut to Angel.

Max found a cookie vender, and decided that her new quest was to find cookies as good as the ones that she had with someone named Ella and Mrs. Martinez. I decided not to ask. Sometimes, it was just better not to know some of these things.

We made it to a library, the most likely place to start a search. It was awesome. Marble pillars supported a slanted, Greek-styled roof adorned with figures of ancient gods and goddesses, and a stone lion guarded the entrance. We stared at everything like the out-of-town yokes we were.

"May I help you?" the young guy at the counter asked. He looked disapprovingly at our haggard appearances, so I turned up the charm-o-meter. I did have one, despite common belief.

"Yes, I'm looking for an institution in New York, and I was wondering if you could help me, please?" I batted my eyelashes at him, stepping closer to the counter. I smiled seductively at him, so glad that he was young. It was sort of fun when they were like, twenty, but when they were old… ugh. "If you had a database or a computer I could use…?" I traced my fingers over the back of his hand and smiled at him, looking up from under my lashes.

"Uh… fourth floor," he stuttered. "There are computers of the main reading room."

"Thank you so much," I said, smiling again. We headed for the elevators.

"Don't you think you overdid it a bit?" Max scolded, frowning.

I rolled my eyes. "I did _not_ enjoy that, first of all. Second, he was going for the silent alarm. Unless you _wanted_ to tangle with the police…?"

"Well weren't you the charmer," Iggy grumbled under his breath, not looking at me.

I shrugged, trying not to think about the elevator. I hated enclosed spaces. We should have taken the stairs. I was hyperventilating by the time we got to the top, and we flew out of the elevator like it was pressurized. Max signed "Ella Martinez" and the clerk smiled at her. Fang growled.

Iggy was sitting in a chair, listening to every rustle of paper, every whisper, every scraped chair, creating a mental map of the room.

I sat by the window reading about the history of New York.

The computer crashed, and a security guard in blue started towards us. We fled down the steps into the dim light, and no one followed us.

Max led us to the subway tunnel. A sign read "Danger! High Voltage! Stay Off the Third Rail!"

"What's the third rail?" Nudge asked.

"It's what keeps the trains on track," I said.

"There's over three thousand volts of electricity running through that," Fang added. "Touch it and you're human popcorn."

"Okay… Good advice," Max said. "Everyone stay off the third rail."

About two, two hundred and fifty yards down the track we found a tunnel leading into a huge cavern. It was a small, ragged city under the streets of Manhattan. Nudge had to give up her knish, but in return we got a narrow cement ledge to sleep on.

Hunter was exhausted, and I knew that it would be rude to make him stay up three nights in a row.

"I'll take first watch," Fang said. I sighed in relief. I was beat. I plopped down on the hard concrete with Iggy's warmth at my back and Nudge curled into my side. Hunter perched on a thin metal bar about ten feet above us and went to sleep. I was out like a light in seconds.

I jolted upright the second that Max did, crawling to her side as Fang whispered in her ear. She had bitten through her lip, and blood trickled out of her mouth.

An angry voice echoed down the tunnel, and Hunter flew to my shoulder. _Who's screwing with my Mac?"_


	5. Chapter 5

"Who are you?" the angry voice demanded. "What are you doing? You crashed my whole system, you worthless dipstick!"

I snarled, a feral, angry sound. Sure, we had only known each other for about a week and a half, but Max was already a part of my new family, and I had sworn to protect them with everything I had. And the phrase "from _everything_" included crazy schizophrenic wackos in the sewers of NY.

All part of a days' work.

I stood in front of a scrawny kid with ragged army fatigues and a dingy PowerBook strapped a crossed his shoulders. My hands tingled. I already knew what his worst Fear was. Just one little touch… Hunter cawed angrily, clacking his beak ominously as a warning to me – to keep my cool – and to the kid – that he was there and ready to rumble. "What do you want?" I snapped at him, my tone cold enough to freeze lava. Which, by the way, is very, very, cold.

"My system crashed, and I've tracked it back to you, so I'm telling you to knock it off – or else!"

"And I'm telling you that you had better back up off my family – or else!" I growled, clenching and unclenching my hands at my sides.

"I'm not going anywhere until you stop messing with my Mac. Why don't you get your girlfriend to the hospital?" he asked Fang.

Max was going to catch it for that later. Boy, this kid really was stupid. Before I could break his legs, though, he said, "See? Look at this!" and turned his computer towards us. Max gasped.

"Who are you?" Max demanded shakily.

"I'm the guy who's going to kick your butt if you don't quit messing with my system," the kid said angrily.

I took another step forwards. "And I'm the girl who's going to _put you in the hospital_ if you threaten us one more time."

Red letters scrolled down the screen. _Hello, Max._

Fang whipped around to stare at her. So did I, for that matter. More red words filled the screen. _Welcome to New York_. Fang's eyebrows rose, which may as well have been a shout of surprise, and I felt my mouth drop open, partially in shock and partially in awe.

"Can you hear that?" she whispered. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Fang and I asked in sync. Jinks, you owe me a soda-pop…

"That voice," she answered.

The kid flipped, and tracked the signal. Sure enough, it was coming from us. Or, to be more precise, Max. Now that the humor had diffused some of the tension from the situation, at least from me, I could take full pleasure in the look of apprehension on the kids face.

The cost of being a seven-of-a-kind, rare bird kid? Your soul. Cost of new family? The old one. The cost of scaring some poor sewer rat shitless? Priceless.

"How are you doing this?" he demanded. "Where's your gear?"

"We don't have any gear," Fang answered vaguely. "Spooky, isn't it?"

He told us that he got kicked out of MIT for not taking his meds, then flipped out 'cause he accidentally spilled the beans that he was a hacker and scrammed, yelling back that we would never take him alive, or something like that.

"Wow," I muttered. "For once we meet someone even weirder than us."

Iggy woke up then, and we told him about the freaky schizophrenic kid and Max's voice and techno-control.

"At least we know what institute we're looking for."

The Institute for Higher Living. Catchy.

When we finally woke up in the morning it took us a few minutes to get back through the subway tunnel and back out to the slightly cleaner fresh air. I felt better immediately, seeing that smoggy grey sky, right until two Erasers leaped out from behind a building.

"Hello, kiddies, wanna play?"

Nudge jerked to a stop, and I grabbed her and jerked her in the other direction, sprinting down the sidewalk at top speed, not bothering to mutter apologies to the people I knocked out of the way.

When we darted across the street, I heard a meaty _thunk_! and a startled half-choked cry.

"Bicycle messenger just took out an Eraser!" Fang shouted. Or at least as close to a shout as Fang could get.

I giggled, but two seconds later a clawed, meaty hand grabbed me by my hair and yanked me off my feet. Nudge screamed bloody murder.

I probably would have been more scared if I wasn't so angry. No one, _no one, _messes with the hair. It is higher up on my blacklist than boiling live bird-kids.

Which, let me tell you, is pretty high up there. Probably #1, or at least in the top three.

The Eraser tried to swing me over his shoulder, but using his weight as leverage, I flipped him over my shoulder and stomped on the base of his spine as he hit the ground, killing him instantly. Another Eraser grabbed me by the throat and started dragging me backwards, holding me in front of him with his claws digging painfully into my neck as a warning. Warm, sticky blood trickled down the collar of my poor abused shirt. Oh, well. At least it was black. And people think that Fang and I dress in black to make a statement. Really, it's just because we're too lazy to wash our clothes when they get dirty.

The Eraser flung me over his shoulder and took off down the street. "Not today," I muttered to myself, grabbing both sides of his face with my hands. Just as I twisted his head to the side, however, he hit the ground like a sack of potatoes. My head bonked off the curb as I kicked him off of me. I hadn't broken his neck. He went down before I could.

Iggy screeched to a stop beside me – don't even ask how he got there before the others because I have no idea – and grabbed my hand, pulling me away.

"Wait, wait, I think he's dead."

Iggy knelt and felt for a pulse, and when he found none, what little color there had been in his face drained away. This was such a strange experience for me – it had been forever since I had met – nevertheless traveled with – someone who was squeamish about death and killing. "You're right. What did you do to him?"

"Nothing!" I protested. "That's what's so damn creepy. I was going to… do something, but then he went down like a ton of freaking bricks!"

The crowd thickened and police sirens wailed in the distance. Nudge and Gazzy threw themselves into my arms, Nudge crying hysterically, Gazzy deathly pale.

"Crazy drug addict!" Fang called to the crowd, and I stood, pulling them with me, and melted into the crowd after Fang and Max, trying to ignore the throbbing in my head. That was defiantly going to bruise.

About ten blocks over, we were walking along, minding our own business, munching on some hotdogs we had gotten from one of the ever-present street side vendors when a skinny guy with a blue mohawk haircut and tattoos jumped out in front of us.

"You guys are perfect!" he said enthusiastically.


	6. Chapter 6

Wow, three chapters in one night, I'm impressed.

Disclaimer: I own it all. Yep, you know it, becuase I'm really James Patterson in disguise, and because I am so depressed with the sixth book (Fang) I have decided that I am going to go onto a teenage writing site and butcher my own work. Yeah, I totally am.

* * *

**I didn't ask for it to be over, but then again, **

**I never asked for it to begin. **

**For that's the way it is with life,**

**as some of the most beautiful days come completely by chance. **

**But even the most beautiful days eventually have their sunsets**

**~ Anonymus**

How nice that someone _finally_ noticed. "Perfect for what?" I asked warily.

"We're having a makeover fest! You guys can have total makeovers for free as long as your stylist gets to do whatever he or she wants."

"Like what?" Nudge asked.

"Makeup, hairstyles, everything!"

Bingo. "We'd love to," I interrupted. The rest of the Flock eyed me in complete disbelief, mouths hanging open. Fang looked like he wanted to turn me over to the guys at the funny farm. "Make us over. Make us look _completely_ different."

"That is so cool," Nudge crowed as I spun in a circle to show her my new Army surplus jacket. I sighed, almost regretting having to cut humongous slits in the back to let out my wings.

The first time I saw her, didn't recognize Nudge. They had straightened her super curly hair and cut it in layers, adding some blonde highlights. She had the potential to grow up gorgeous, which was something that I generally didn't notice, but with Nudge, it was impossible, even for people like me and Max, not to notice.

The Gasman had outfitted himself in camouflage, and they had cut his blonde hair and dyed the tips of his new spikes blue. The sides were super short.

Fang had gotten his hair cut short, too, except for one chunk that flopped over his eyes and highlighted a bunch of different shades of brown, making it look exactly like a hawk's plumage. He had changed his basic black ensemble to a slightly different black ensemble.

Angel had been given cornrows and had a pair of cargo pants and a fluffy blue fleece jacket.

"We ready?" Iggy demanded with just a hint of impatience. "Not that I don't just _adore_ shopping."

I grinned at him and brushed my hand over the back of his hand. He couldn't see it, but I knew that he could hear it in my voice. "You look like you stuck your finger in an electric socket," I said approvingly. His strawberry blonde hair had been cut and spiked like Gazzy's, but the tips had been died black.

"Really? Sweet." He had gotten his ear pierced before Max noticed, and if I hadn't already had the almost-maximum amount of piercing I could, I might have been jealous of his thin gold hoop.

My stylist had looked at my waist-long braid, and I had closed my eyes, expecting to hear the snip of scissors behind my ears. Instead, she had cut off about four inches and layered it before highlighting it with thin streaks of silver.

They went to town with makeup, too, so now I looked like twenty instead of fourteen. Great.

It felt fabulous to finally be able to stretch my wings out and just… fly. It was so much better than walking. After a half hour of flying we found a stretch of black beach and crashed for the night. The beach was underdeveloped, with huge boulders sealing off both ends.

Max and Nudge stocked up on supplies while I was still sleeping, and when I woke up I felt restless. There was a storm coming. I didn't know when or how, but it was coming. I felt it. I also felt the need to use my Gifts. If I didn't use them for a while they flipped out and started using themselves, usually in destructive, ostentatious, violent ways, so I moved some boulders to make a circular fort.

The kids and I played capture the flag. Angel found out that she had gills, and scared us all half to death. I was ready to turn the ocean upside-down to find her.

Long after the rest of the flock had gone to bed I sat up, gazing at the stars from the top of a huge boulder.

The feeling of dread had only grown stronger. Something awful was about to happen, and I didn't know what it was. I didn't know how to help.

"Will you patrol tonight?" I asked Hunter. He bobbed his head. "Thanks." I looked at the bird closely. "Do you know what's about to happen? 'Cause I sure don't." a chill ran down my spine as I slid off the boulder.

Iggy was sitting up, waiting. "Where were you?" he asked.

"Thinking. Do you feel it? It's like the ax is getting ready to fall. Even the ocean seems subdued."

He nodded. I spread my wings in front of the fire and wrapped my arms around my stomach. The sooty red-black feathers seemed to absorb the light of the fire.

"What does the sky look like?" Iggy asked suddenly.

"Well, it's beautiful. It looks like someone spilled black ink all over the sky and sprinkled baking salt or silver glitter all over it. The moon is a big round egg, like when you stand it up straight on a black marble countertop and look down at it. I can sort of see the craters, and it makes it look like the moon had acne once. The waves are breaking just before they hit the shore. They're like horses running, so rhythmic and white on top of the dark blue-grey of the ocean. The sand is gleaming under the light of the moon, and everything is bathed in a pale, unearthly glow."

He nodded, sort of smiling. "The way you describe it I can almost see it."

I scooted closer to him until my shoulder bumped his. "Can I ask a personal question?"

"Shoot," he said.

I hesitated, biting my lip, then asked, regretting it before the words had even left my mouth, "How did it happen? Your eyes, I mean?"

His face hardened into a bitter mask. "The scientists at the school wanted to enhance my night vision."

I touched his shoulder. "Iggy, I am so sorry, it was rude, I shouldn't have asked –"

"Don't be sorry," he interrupted, "Because I'm about to ask you an equally nosy, painful question."

"What?" I asked warily. There were many, many, personal, nosy, questions that I wasn't ready to answer, but I would try. I would try for Ig.

"What happened to make you so violent and angry?"

My body locked down and I clenched my hands into fists in the sand. "You're right." I said, my voice colder than a glacier.

"That you're angry and violent?" he asked.

"No, that it's a painful, nosy question." I took a deep breath to stop the tremors in my hands, folding them in my lap. "But I suppose it's only fair that I answer you. It's not a pleasant story, and it doesn't have a happy ending," I warned him.

He motioned for me to go on.

"There were five others besides me. We were made at the same time as you were, but by another company Itex instead of the School. We were made differently than you and the rest of the Flock. They didn't use just one species of bird, not even birds that still existed. It was a bit like a Jurassic Park kind of thing. I was grafted with pterosaur DNA, but they didn't want reptiles, so they added raven and falcon DNA to it. And they got me. I turned out to be more than they could handle, though. They made others, too, out of anything that flew. There was Blade. They enhanced him with bat DNA. He was my second, like Fang is to Max. He was a lot like Fang."

I dug my nails into my palms to keep from crying. "Then there was Trinity. She was my best friend. They altered her with chaffinch and kestrel. She talked a lot, sure, but she was an amazing fighter and could borrow anyone's power. It didn't even have to be supernatural. If you were super strong, she could borrow that strength. Same with smarts, or even good looks.

"Rosemary was my little baby. She was part dove, part blue jay. She could control the wind, and having someone like that around certainly made flying easier. She could call up and updraft and we would be able to coast for miles.

"Cipher could hack anything mechanical. If it had wheels, he could jack it. If it was made of metal, he could control it with his technopathy. He was part crow, but they screwed up somewhere, and he could only speak in bird-calls.

"Kieran was the goofball of our little family, and he liked nothing better than to generate a force field right in front of you and watch you squish like a bug on a windshield. I swear he was part woodpecker, or camp robber. A magpie, or something like it.

"Anyway, they put me in charge of themselves. I never knew why. Maybe it was because I was the best fighter, or that I wasn't afraid to take risks to keep us all safe. To sum it up, we kicked butt, took names, and got the hell out of the Institute. Those were the best three years of my life, but one day, Blade and I got into an argument, and for the first time, I didn't stay to patch it up. I went off to mope. By the time I made it back, they were all dead. Even Rosie, and she was only six."

He was silent for a time before pulling me into a hug. I bawled quietly into his shirt. "I'm so, so sorry, Rave. I can't imagine what I would do if any of the flock were killed, not to mention my whole family."

"Do-" I hesitated. "Do you want to go for a walk?"

"Sure," he said, standing up and pulling me with him. He didn't let go of my hand as we walked down the glowing white beach. Not that I wanted him to.

He stopped suddenly, his pale eyes on my face. "Are you happy here with us?"

I was taken aback, but sure of my answer. "Of course."

Iggy was silent for a long time, and when he spoke again, there was a light blush over his fair cheekbones. "Are you "

The hairs on the back of my neck prickled, and I had just enough time to throw myself flat, dragging Iggy with me, before bullets whistled overhead. I cussed violently, then rolled, screaming at the rest of the Flock to wake up. I swore again. Iggy was on watch duty. I shouldn't have let myself be distracted, or distract him.

We had no chance. In seconds, the rest of the flock and I were held by at least twenty Erasers.

"_Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa,_" I thought angrily to myself. It was an old Catholic confession, meaning: my fault, my most grievous fault. "To love is to destroy." This is what happened whenever I touched something – it turned to ash in my hands.

Then Iggy sagged in the Eraser's grip, his breathing shallow, and I felt my blood turn to an icy sludge in my veins. A dark stain was spreading from the wound in his side, and his face was deathly pale.

I panicked, struggling, stomping on an Eraser's instep before tossing him over my shoulder into the group of Erasers holding Nudge and Gazzy who instantly shot straight up into the air. Good, at least they were safe.

The shadows along the shoreline sprang to life, dancing across the pale, moon-washed beach where shadows had no place to be. They flew down the throats of the wolf-men holding Max and Fang. Angel had used her newly developed, creepy powers to get them to let her go, and now the whole flock – excluding Iggy and myself – was hovering a safe distance above the ground.

Fangs pricked my lips, crimson droplets of blood rolling down my mouth, mixing with the venom from the two hypodermic needles that had replaced my teeth. Talons sprouted from my fingers, sharp as razors.

I was still fighting my way to Iggy when one of the Erasers stiffened and barked an order to the rest of the pack. Just as fast as they had come, they were gone, melting into the forest at our backs.

"Iggy, Iggy, are you okay? Stay with me, please, please, don't leave, don't leave, I just found you –" I choked on my tears as I gathered him into my lap, tearing off my jacket to make a makeshift pad to put pressure on his wound.

It seemed like it had missed most of his major organs, but I couldn't tell because I was too stressed out to really focus my Gift.

"We need to get him to a hospital," I rasped, my voice hoarse from unshed tears. "This is beyond me, unless I gave up my entire Grace, and even then something might be horribly, irreparably wrong in the end because I wouldn't be around anymore to focus it."

"Well, do it," Max demanded. "At least _he_ would still be alive."

I looked her squarely in the face. That was my point. I would give it all up, if I thought it would help. "Do you think he would want to live the rest of his life with an arm growing out of the back of his neck and his organs on the outside of his body?"

Max looked away, but in the end the decision was decided for us when a too-eager-to-help bystander saw the spreading pool of red around Iggy, my blood-spattered face, and the panicked expressions on our faces and called 911.

The ambulance arrived in minutes. It took a little convincing for me to simply relinquish his care over to people I didn't even know, but as long as I could stay with him I could handle it.

"He's fibrillating," one of the doctors said. "Get the paddles."

"Not unless you want to kill him," I snapped, grabbing the assistant's wrist, digging my fingernails into the tendons. "His heart always beats that fast."

They might have listened to me and they may not have, but it didn't matter because at that moment we arrived at the hospital and they wheeled him down the hall, me jogging beside him the whole way, holding his hand and trying not to cry.

* * *

Well, how's that for ya? This had better satisfy you for some time, because my muse has just been eaten by my neighborhood "Aqua Apes" whom I had to babysit for 5 hours. I sprained my ankle, fell into a thorny wild rose bush, got an eraser burn on the back of my left hand for falling asleep - those brats - and burned off the skin of my wrist on the stove.

Whoop-de-freakin'-doo.

So be happy.

I am.

Totally.

Yeah... Really.

Whatever. I'll have the next chapter out before my b-day, hopefully. (That means that I have 34 days, which should be long enough.)

Hope you enjoyed it and all that crap, please R&R. (That is so stupid. I can't say R&R, because that means "Read and Review," and if you've gotten this far you've obviously already read it, so reallyjust what I am asking you is to review.)


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